The Summer of Warp Speed

Doesn't this always seem to be the case? When you want time to speed up because you are looking forward to a future event, time seems to practically stand still. But when you are finally, mercifully, ready to be IN the moment, to relax and enjoy the PRESENT, it goes by at warp speed? I am in awe of how quickly this summer is flying by. The days are passing in a blur and I find myself wishing I could be Zack Morris back on Saved By The Bell, when he could yell "time-out!" and time would freeze. I would totally time-out this summer, that's how much I am loving it:)

There are certain times in your life when you look around and think to yourself, "Somebody, quickly! Pinch me! I must be dreaming, because this can't be real!" I really, truly do feel that way right now. And I am trying so hard to squash my inner-realist who threatens to rear her ugly head and yell, "Just wait, your luck will run out soon!" We are so happy right now. My amazing husband got a PROMOTION last week--whoo hoo, SO proud of him! So if you live in Ohio and your insurance rates go up, you know who to partially blame, haha. The weather has been amazing. We have healthy children, a pool membership, a ton of wonderful parks and beaches and bike trails and fun things to do nearby. I've never liked the word "blessed" but I certainly have to agree with the definition: "good fortune" seems to sum it all up right now. We are lucky, plain and simple. And I am so grateful:)

Here are some recent pics. The kids showing off their new Indians hats and new pajamas. Enjoying Playground World and the pool. Our "new & improved" swingset--we upgraded the disc swing for a double glider that the kids love being able to do themselves.

Life is sweet. Even sweeter than the fresh peaches sitting on my kitchen counter:) I hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

Summer of Fun

My apologies for the long wait between posts. You see, we got new phones last month--my Mother's Day present and the coolest, best thing I've gotten in a long, long time. I love it, and the camera on my phone is actually better than my point-n-shoot, and has it's own awesome editing software right on the phone...so, yeah. I've been taking a lot of pictures, but not really putting them anywhere! I promise to be better about uploading them!

Things here in northeast Ohio are...wonderful. Really. Summer has finally arrived, with its fresh grass clippings and warmer temps and no school. The kids and I are having a blast, going to parks and the pool and the beach, riding bikes and eating popsicles and doing all of that fun summer stuff. I really want this summer to be about fun and sunshine, giving us lots of good, happy, warm memories to stuff away and pull out during the cold, long winter (which is, thankfully, far far away still). I joked the other day that I want my toughest decisions this summer to be: pool or beach?; beer or wine?; and peanut butter or ham 'n cheese sandwiches? We've literally eaten every single lunch this week outdoors, and it is heaven:) (My kitchen likes it too! lol)

So here is to a summer of fun and memories. A summer of laughter and smiles, popsicle tongues and dirty bare feet. A summer of splashing and swimming, swinging and sliding, and having the best time we can possibly have. Together:)

On a side note, at the pool the other day (LOVING our Y membership, the pool is very close and so much fun!) I was watching a mother with a 3 month old baby and a 2 year old son try to juggle it all. She was feeding the baby and trying to keep an eye on her toddler, coaxing him to come closer, be careful, stay within sight. The baby started fussing and she looked over at me and the kids who were eating sandwiches and carrot sticks and juice boxes in our deck chairs, and she said, "I am so envious of you right now, you have no idea." I laughed. Oh how I laughed, because I DO have an idea, because I used to be her and I remember those days and how I longed for the time when my kids would be old enough to sit in chairs and eat their lunch and then swim and splash nearby. IT. HAS. ARRIVED. And I am truly loving this stage of motherhood, no diapers, no babies, just me and my littles, who have really become my very best buddies.

It's going to be a fantastic summer:)

Smells Like a Memory

We often joke around our house about Ava's amazingly keen sense of smell. She can smell anything from what seems like a mile away. She's always the first to comment on dinner cooking, or the smell of flowers in the air, or fresh cut grass. She can smell from downstairs when Bailey has pooped in the playroom (damn cat!) on the far end of the house. She can't even walk into Target without commenting, "Mmmm, I smell popcorn!"

It's no secret that smells can induce memories and feelings, and most scientists agree that smell is in fact the strongest sense tied to memory. Most of us will have a strong visual image when presented with a particular smell from a good or bad memory in our childhood. I know, for me, that the smell of a campfire floods my brain with wonderful images, camping with my dad when we were kids, or attending a campfire at Camp Eberhart in my teens. I simply can't smell a campfire smoldering and not feel the smile creep onto my face, literally lighting me up from the inside. My nose knows:)

But I found an interesting article about the correlation between olfactory sensitivity and emotional sensitivity that intrigued me. (http://www.neatorama.com/2009/10/13/correlation-found-between-sense-of-smell-and-emotional-sensitivity/). Are people who smell better more emotionally sensitive? And why? It certainly might explain my extremely sensitive daughter, who seems to feel every emotion like it might be her very last. It might even explain my own over-sensitivity when it comes to my emotional feelings.

Whatever the scientific reason for the link between smell and memory, I know that as a parent I plan to use it to my advantage:-) I want my children to smell a campfire, or my homemade macaroni and cheese, or even just the chlorine in the pool at the Y, and be comforted. I want to conjure happy, loving memories that will last a lifetime. Can you smell that? It's a memory:)

Picture post

Just a quick picture roundup from April, as I've been meaning to put these all up but keep forgetting. We had a very nice Easter dinner at Chuck's sister's house and I remembered to take some pictures of the kids with relatives, since I haven't taken any new pictures in ages. You'll notice that Chuck is absent from all of these photos...one of these days I'll manage to convince him to actually be in a picture with his own wife and children (hint...hint...) ;-)

I hope everyone had a nice Easter and April, despite the terrible very UN-spring-like weather we've all had. I'm sincerely hoping that May is better than April, though is the forecast for this week is any indication, I am going to be disappointed, lol.

Please keep Ava in your thoughts as she's pretty sick with some sort of fever virus, poor doll:( She's been running a pretty high temp for the past two days, I hope she feels better soon!

To Everything, turn, turn, turn...

I love all of the four seasons for different reasons, but there is something particularly reviving about the brink of Spring, that essential time when it hasn't quite yet sprung, but Mother Nature tempts us every so often. I am not, at all, a Bible reader, but I can't help but think of the song adapted from Ecclesiastes, "To everything, there is a season, and a time to every purpose, under Heaven." Beautiful words with a significant meaning, for spring simply can't exist without the winter that precedes it.

For every time I felt that aching in my soul this winter, that hollowness in my bones and the longing for a warm breeze on my cheek...it's sweeter now. I can lift my face to the sun and finally feel the heat, bask in the smell of new green things about to burst forth. I can literally feel the earth's trembling excitement in my bones. Everything has lay dormant for so long, myself included. I feel like I am finally emerging again, from a cozy den and a long winter's nap, to find myself utterly fresh and new, colorful and fragrant. How strange it is to have felt like I literally lost myself because I couldn't plant my toes in the grass...

I don't believe in the general premise of religion, but I can relate to what a religious experience must be like. There is nothing more soul stretching, more grounding and yet simultaneously uplifting--for me, anyway--than stretching out on a nice green lawn, feeling the wind on my face, and admiring the sky. If there really is such a thing as the "Holy Spirit," that's the only place I can ever imagine it existing.

One of my favorite architects, Frank Lloyd Wright, once said, I believe in God, only I spell it Nature. I couldn't have said it better myself:)

Happy Spring!